Your Excellency Dr. Ramos-Horta, thank you for your continued support for the Peace Corps; Timor-Leste Country Director Kavita Pullapilly; distinguished guests, counterparts and volunteers, good morning and welcome to the U.S. Embassy
I am pleased that you could all join us here today to share this special moment.
Peace Corps volunteers reflect the very highest ideals of the United States. These volunteers are joining a very select group of talented Americans who have served in the Peace Corps since President John F. Kennedy established the program in 1961.
Congratulations to the volunteers who we will be swearing in today and the counterparts who will be working with them over the next two years. We are excited to see what you will accomplish working hand in hand together.
I am proud and amazed by the commitment of women and men from across the United States to represent their country working side by side with people in communities in Timor-Leste and around the world.
And I am delighted today to have the honor and privilege to administer the Peace Corps oath of service.
Volunteers, please rise and repeat after me:
I, ___State your name_________,
do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States
against all enemies, foreign and domestic,
and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same,
that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.
[So help me God].
